February 18, 2013

Phillies Notes and Roster Projections, 2/18

It's President's Day, and camp is well under way down in Clearwater. Here's some of the news I gathered up today.

Mandy Housenick of the Morning Call discusses the bullpen and makes some predictions. She puts Horst, Aumont, and De Fratus on the team to break camp. I'm with her on Horst and Aumont, while I have De Fratus as the last man off, after Mike Stutes.

David Murphy does his roster projection, and he has Raul Valdes joining Horst and De Fratus on the staff. I have Valdes as the second to last guy off. He also has a different line-up than me, with the same guys in it.

We Should Be GM's calls Ryan Howard a liar for saying he can hit lefties. Then a fight breaks out in the comments about his contract. Two things here: one, he doesn't have to hit lefties well, he just has to show he can pop a few out of the yard off of them, and two, as I always ask those who say it's the worst contract ever, which better first baseman who hit the market were we going to get for five years or less, and pay less than $125 million in guaranteed money to? I concede he's over-paid, and that Ruben may have been able to get a better deal waiting, however those that think this is a crippling contract would rather go back to the old, "small money" days I think.

Nothing's changed, though I think a week in we can identify the battles: Brown and Ruf to win the jobs to start out, Mayberry and Nix to defend spots on the team, Aumont, Horst, and Stutes to hold off a bunch of other guys, and Lannan to hold off anyone who throws well. I'm also intrigued by what happens with Ender Inciarte, the rule five pick.

Given the age of a lot of Phillies, this is what you need to watch here. Who makes this team, and what their role is, could impact the big league club a lot. Hopefully in the coming week I can dive deeper into Reading's projections as well. As with every camp, I expect to be wrong a bit.